The woman was already at the counter when the man sat down. He was on the edge between middle age and old age. His beard was long and straggly. His hair had receded enough for a bald spot. The woman looked to be no more than 20. She had sandy brown hair, a noticeably large nose and a mole on one cheek. She looked up from a newspaper, and smiled. "Hello, Henry," she said. "It looked like you weren't going to make it."

"I know," he said with a sheepish smile. "I am always running late. I think we have a little time to talk." He waved to a waitress, who promptly set about making a cup of coffee by familiar formula. He turned his head, ready to speak. He paused at the sight of the newspaper. The folded front sheet showed a mushroom cloud.

"What is it?" the woman said.

"It is nothing," Henry said. "It is just… We live in interesting times, don't we? Sometimes, I wonder if it would be better if they were less interesting."

"I don't know," the woman said. A thin ring gleamed on her finger as she picked up the last third of a croissant. "Some things are getting better. I like to think, it's just how you look at them. Just look at you and me; a little while ago, it would have been improper for a gentleman to talk to another man's betrothed."

Henry smiled at her teasing. The waitress brought him his coffee. "Yes, of course. You know, Lily, I do appreciate your company, even if there is only a little time." He took a sip from his cup. "By the way, how is… Robert, is it?"

"We are doing well," Lily said. "We are having to tell his family not to spend so much on the wedding. Though, there is one thing… He received a letter from the draft board. It won't be a problem. He is a student in training for skilled technical work. If it comes to that, his father has an old friend on the board."

Henry smiled and nodded. "I am sure it will be all right," he said. He glanced at the newspaper, then looked back at her. She smiled again, ever so slightly sad. "I was engaged; have I told you that? It was before the war."

His voice trailed off as he looked down at the coffee. He finally spoke again, without looking up. "There is something I have wanted to tell you," he said. "I want to tell someone. I do work, very important work…"

And Chloe spoke before the gathered, very select audience. "That was what my peers have called the most successful honeytrap operation in history," she said. "The physicist Henry Rosenbaum told me where he had concealed formulas that provide the basis for a nuclear weapon 100 times as powerful as any built before, or 1% of the weight. It was all accomplished in just 3 months, with a total contact time of less than 12 hours. It was done so successfully that he fled to Carpathania before his own handlers realized what he had done."

She allowed time for a murmur of acknowledgement. "But, in fact, the operation was carried out with none of the stereotypical elements of the `honeytrap' mission. In particular, I made no attempt to seduce the subject. Indeed, I repeatedly advised my superiors that doing so would not only offend him but draw immediate suspicion from his handlers. For his own part, Dr. Rosenbaum made no romantic or sexual overtures. The only element of conventional sexuality in the course of the whole mission was the use of minor makeup and prosthetics to heighten a slight resemblance to his former fiancé, Lillian Gluck, deceased. The emotional connection mattered far more than any inducement. It was strong enough that his most recent communications still ask about the well-being of the person I brought to life, even after being presented with overwhelming evidence that no such individual ever existed.

"The fact is that the honeytrap operation was developed by powerful and wealthy men who were used to getting what they wanted, for men no different than themselves. It may have worked, while the same men held power, but at the cost of the safety and morality of agents who were ordered to gratify the lusts of their enemies." She paused as she thought of her detailed analyses proving that it had, in fact, not worked.

"But we are dealing with a quickly changing world. The men, not to mention the women, who are shaping history are no longer the sons and grandsons of men who held the same positions. They are scientists, artists, and intellectuals who built their own worlds around themselves, often without any support or true understanding from the government or society. Their vulnerabilities and our opportunities are not about momentary gratification, but the need for compassion, understanding and human dignity. If we can give them that, we can not only get what we want from them but add them as allies to our cause. But we cannot even pretend to offer them any of those things when we deny them to our own loyal agents. That is just one of the reasons why the so-called `honeytrap' should be not just phased out, but banned outright."

She nodded at the cautious applause that rose up… and she knew, once again, that no one would listen.